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Azerbaijan forces have entered a district bordering Nagorno-Karabakh as the country begins retaking territory held for nearly 30 years by the Armenian-backed government as part of a Russian-brokered peace deal.
Video showed troops and armoured vehicles moving into the district of Aghdam, which Armenia conceded in a controversial armistice, one day after columns of its soldiers and tanks rolled out of the territory.
Pakistani and Indian troops clashed in disputed Kashmir, leaving at least 15 people dead, including 10 civilians, and wounding more than 30 on both sides, officials said Friday. The fighting came amid increasing tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors.
In a statement, the Pakistani military and government officials blamed India for initiating the fighting by firing rockets and mortar shells overnight and on Friday that killed four Pakistani civilians and one soldier, and wounded 27, including women and children.
A top insurgent leader and four of his fighters operating along India’s border with Bangladesh and Myanmar have surrendered to the Indian army in the country’s troubled northeast, the army said Thursday.
Drishti Rajkhowa, who now is in the Indian army’s custody, is considered the No. 2 leader in the United Liberation Front of Asom, a faction headed by Paresh Baruah. He and four others also gave up a huge quantity of arms, the statement said, without giving any details.
Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia have signed an agreement to end military conflict over the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan called the deal “incredibly painful both for me and both for our people”.
The Azerbaijani army has liberated 16 more villages in the Upper Karabakh region from Armenia’s occupation.
“Victorious Armed Forces of Azerbaijan liberated Yuxari Veyselli, Yuxari Seyidehmedli, Gorgan, Uchunju Mahmudlu, Gachar and Divanalilar villages of Fuzuli, Yukhari Mezre and Yanarhach villages of Jabrayil, Gezyan, Balasoltanli and Merdanli villages of Gubadli, Beshdeli village of Zangilan, Garabulag and Moshmakhat villages of Khojaly, Atagut and Tsakuri of Khojavend,” Azerbaijan’s president said on Twitter on Saturday.